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Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que., collected her first individual speed skating medal at her fifth Winter Olympics, earning bronze in the women’s 3,000 metres on Saturday in Milan.
Maltais covered seven-and-a-half laps at Milano Speed Skating Stadium in three minutes 56.93 seconds.
The 35-year-old arrived at these Olympics on a roll, boasting six World Cup finishes this season in individual races, all but one in the 3,000. Her best result is silver, ahead of Wiklund, at a November competition in Salt Lake City.
Last month, Maltais delivered a two-medal performance in Inzell, Germany, taking silver in mass start a day after bronze in the 3,000.
Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que., won the bronze medal in the women’s 3,000m speed skating race, while Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida won gold in an Olympic record time.
Italy’s Francesca Lollobrigida won Saturday’s race in an Olympic-record 3:54.28 after capturing silver four years ago in China.
Ragne Wiklund of Norway finished behind Lollobrigida in Italy, stopping the clock in 3:56.54.
Maltais’s teammate Isabelle Weidemann of Ottawa, who grabbed 2022 Olympic bronze in Beijing, crossed the line fifth in 3:59.24.
The 30-year-old was an Olympic triple medallist in China, where Weidemann captured women’s team pursuit gold with Ivanie Blondin and Maltais, and silver in the women’s 5,000.
This season, Weidemann finished second in the long distance standings over four Olympic qualifying World Cup events with 191 points, one spot ahead of Maltais (174 points).
Weidemann was a silver medallist in the women’s 3,000 at a World Cup stop in Hamar, Norway in December after earning silver earlier that month in the 5,000 in Heerenveen, Netherlands.
Laura Hall, the third Canadian in Saturday’s 20-athlete competition, was 13th (4:06.15) in her Olympic debut.
In January, the 22-year-old from Salmon Arm, B.C., surprised many by finishing first in the 3,000 at the Long Track Canada Cup and Olympic Skate-Off in Quebec City to secure Canada’s third spot in the distance for Milano Cortina.
Hall’s time of 4.07.087 topped her pair mate Maltais (4:07.412) and Ottawa’s Blondin (4:07.514), her primary challenger for the final distance spot.
Hall’s younger brother, Daniel, is also making his Olympic debut and will compete in the men’s 1,500 and mass start. Their father, Mike, was a long-track speed skater at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
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